I'm sure all those of you who attended the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races on Sunday will have been impressed with the performance of our elite horses in the four International Group One races, especially Sacred Kingdom and Good Ba Ba who netted a double for the home team.
Sacred Kingdom has shown his capabilities to an international audience and will likely be ranked the top turf sprinter in the world, while Good Ba Ba defeated a group of top milers from Europe and Asia to claim the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Mile. Good Ba Ba follows in the footsteps of The Duke by becoming the second consecutive Hong Kong International Sale graduate to claim this race.
Although their respective trainers, Ricky Yiu and Andreas Schutz, have said they will remain focused on the major domestic races for the rest of this season, I still look forward a lot to seeing these two exciting horses compete overseas and further demonstrate the world-class racing quality in Hong Kong.
In football, it is always said that the home fans' support is like having an extra man on the pitch. I have to offer my sincere compliments to all of you who came to Sha Tin on Sunday as it was your non-stop cheering that gave our home horses and their jockeys that vital extra bit of energy and motivation.
It was a wonderful turnout to the truly world-class racing this year with the best horses competing and a fantastic atmosphere, and you can see why I told the media before the closing ceremony that I reckoned this year's International Racing Carnival to have been the most successful in the nine years that I've been working here.
Knowing that we have this level of support is crucial for us as we continue our efforts to develop Hong Kong's racing product in future, to uphold the maxim of "Racing for Charity" and work for the betterment of Hong Kong people. With this in mind, I'd like to draw your attention to another significant event this week, an exhibition that we've just opened at the Hong Kong Racing Museum at Happy Valley to give local residents more information on our plans to conserve and revitalise the historic Central Police Station Compound. This exhibition provides a good opportunity for you to see the plans in detail and understand the rationale behind them. It will be open from now until early May and admission is free, so I hope you will visit this exhibition and then let us have your comments.
After the excitement of International Racing Week, it's back to routine at Happy Valley on Wednesday night. For today's eight-race card, I am looking forward to seeing the performance of Feel-so-good and Mellifluous as both horses won last time on the same course and respective distances.
Comment
